This invention relates to an improvement in acoustic electrical transducers used in instruments for forming images from reflections of energy contained in acoustic pulses transmitted into the matter being examined. Transducers for this purpose may be comprised of a plurality of rectilinear piezoelectric crystals mounted in spaced parallel relationship on an acoustic energy absorbing base, a grounded shield of thin metal in electrical contact with the ends of the crystals remote from the base, and electrodes in the form of thin metal strips respectively in contact with each crystal so as to cause them to have oscillatory changes in dimension at a desired carrier frequency F.sub.C in a direction perpendicular to the base when a driving voltage pulse is applied thereto. The resulting motion of the ends of the crystals remote from the base causes pulses of acoustic waves of the carrier frequency F.sub.C to pass through a shield that is in contact with the ends of the crystals and into matter in contact with the shield. When reflections of energy from these acoustic pulses arrive at the crystals, they experience an oscillatory change in dimension in the same direction as before but at an amplitude determined by the energy in the reflected pulses. The electrical signals produced at the electrodes as a result of the oscillatory changes in dimension are summed to produce a signal for controlling the intensity of an image. It is often required, as for example when viewing a carotid artery or the heart of an infant, that the instrument be capable of forming images having a very small minimum range. Unfortunately, however, oscillations produced in the crystals by the driving pulses decay at such a slow rate as to produce electrical signals at the electrodes having amplitudes sufficient to mask the signals produced at the electrodes by reflections from nearby targets. In my U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 083,693, filed on Oct. 11, 1979, and entitled "Acoustic Electric Transducer with Slotted Base", which is filed concurrently herewith, I describe a way of increasing the rate of decay of such oscillations by attenuating the Rayleigh waves traveling along the surface of the base with slots in the base that are aligned with the spaces between the crystals.